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Psalm 56:3-4 (55:4-5 LXX)

I will not fear by day,
But I will hope in You.
I will praise God with my words all day long;
In God I hope; I will not be afraid; what will flesh do to me?

Personal Challenge…

Do we really live our lives out practicing our faith in God? Do we worry about things? Things of this world? Things related to the future? Do we hold on to the things of the past…or worse yet let them hold on to us? Our God holds eternity; past, present, and future, in the palm of His hand. If He is truly our Lord then we can go throughout the day without fear because our hope is in Him. We can praise Him with every breath, because He is God. No one, or no thing, can harm us. Glory be to God!

Psalm 84:11-12 (83:12-13 LXX)

For the Lord God loves mercy and truth;
He will give grace and glory;
The Lord’s hand will not remove good things from those who walk in innocence.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in You.

Encouraging Words…

Our God does not have unrealistic rules and expectations for us. He does not want us to hate and even sometimes kill those who do not believe in Him. To the contrary He wants us to love them. He does not demand tithes, offerings, and sacrifices. To the contrary He asks for us to give Him our hearts. He desires that we pass on His mercy, grace, and truth to those whom we come into contact with. He wants us to put our hope, our complete hope, in Him. Glory be to God!

Psalm 84:1-2 (83:2-3 LXX)

How beloved are Your dwellings, O Lord of hosts.
My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh greatly rejoice in the living God.

Personal Challenge…

Does my soul long and faint for the courts of the Lord or am I content with where I am in this world? Does my heart and flesh greatly rejoice in the living God or do I rejoice in the things that I have in this world? I am supposed to be living my life as a sojourner in this physical world. My true home, my true citizenship, is in God’s kingdom. Do I live my life this way? Can those around me see that I am a foreigner in their land? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Psalm 55:16-17 (54:17-18 LXX)

But I cried out to God,
And the Lord heard me.
Evening and morning and midday, I shall tell;
I shall proclaim, and He will hear my voice.

Encouraging Words…

Our God lives! He hears our voices when we cry out to Him. When should we cry out to Him…always! Whether in good times or bad we are to be proclaiming Him and His benevolence. Glory be to God!

1 Peter 2:1-3

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Personal Challenge…

We cannot claim to be children of God and be living lives that are no different than what goes on in the world around us. We must abandon the formal life, the ways of the world and pursue lives filled with virtue. This comes from feeding on the truth of our Lord found in teachings of the church, both written and spoken, participating in the sacraments of the church, and striving to grow in our Christian life, the image of Christ. This is all a series of choices followed by actions. Glory be to God!

1 Kings 18:17-18

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Are you the one who is troubling Israel?” Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but rather you and the house of your father, in that you forsook the Lord your God and followed after the Baals.

Personal Challenge…

Oh how quickly we blame God for the events that are transpiring in our lives as the consequences from our own choices. We walk away from our Lord and abandon His precepts and desires for us and then wonder why our lives begin to go awry. Then we start proclaiming, “Oh God, why are you doing this in my life?” It is not God that has done anything to us, but is is us who have turned from Him and are now reaping the fruit of that decision. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Romans 4:5-8

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,And whose sins are covered;Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”

Encouraging Words…